


Deeply Devoted

by knave_of_swords



Category: Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:55:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27047572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knave_of_swords/pseuds/knave_of_swords
Summary: Annand doesn't die right away, after falling in battle with Pamela's squad and the Beige Ritter. She slowly bleeds out in the snow until Erinys finds her, hoping to at least bring her sister's body back to Silessia for a proper burial. Miraculously, Annand isn't dead yet, and Erin gets to bring her sister back to Silessia to heal and recover rather than to be buried.
Relationships: Mahnya | Annand/Rahna
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Deeply Devoted

**Author's Note:**

> (I had this in my WIP folder since before that other Mahnya/Rahna fic got posted a while back, but that fic made me come back to this one and finish it because it made go aaaaaaaa over the two of them again)

Warmth is the first sensation that Annand feels again. As she gradually regains conciousness, it's the warmth pulsing through her body that makes her realize that she's alive. Death had been so cold. 

Death... she had been dying, moments ago, hadn't she? She had fallen into the snow, with what should have been a mortal wound from Pamela's lance, while the Beige Ritter decimated her squadron. The Beige Ritter. Silessia. Queen Rahna. She had been protecting Queen Rahna, and had failed. Annand's eyes snap open, and she tries to sit up. 

Warm hands press against her shoulders, forcing her back down against what the bed that she's woken up in. A familiar face appears in front of her, cutting through the haze in Annand's mind. 

"Queen Rahna," Annand mumbles. Trying to speak again is harder than she remembers it being. So much effort, for two barely coherent words. Her queen deserves better. In so many ways. "I'm sorry."

"You should be sorry," Rahna says, her voice sounding oddly hoarse. Annand tries to look directly at Rahna, and not have her face swim in and out of focus. "You nearly died out there. Would have died, if your sister hadn't found you or Lewyn didn't have a healing stave with him." Rahna's eyes are puffy and slightly pink. Annand blinks. Queen Rahna, crying? Lewyn hadn't been injured, had he?

"I'm sorry," Annand repeats, clearer this time than before. "I failed you, my lady." She doesn't know what else to say. She had failed to stop Pamela's squadron, failed to protect Silessia, failed to even die properly for her liege. Despite her earlier words, Rahna's expression softens. She removes her hands from her shoulders, but doesn't let go of Annand, merely shifting her hands to rest against Annand's forearm. 

"I almost lost you," Rahna says quietly. "I thought I  _ had _ lost you, until Erinys came flying in with you, desperately yelling for a healer." Guilt tugs at Annand. She opens her mouth to apologize again, but Rahna speaks again before she can. "But don't you dare say you failed me, Annand. You fought so valiantly. I'm just glad to have you back alive." Rahna pauses. "You mean so much to me. Sometimes I don't know how I would carry on without you around."

"My apologies, but I do not believe that I am that important to Silesse, my lady." 

"No," Rahna sighs. "You aren't. Not to Silesse. But you are to me." Annand's mouth goes dry, and she's certain that she's starting to blush. Her heart pounds in her throat. 

"I..." she stutters for a moment. "I hardly know what to say, my lady."

"You don't need to say anything," Rahna says. "But I do want you to promise me something." Rahna is looking Annand right in the eye, and the intensity of the look that Rahna is giving her sends heat rushing through her body. Annand sits up as much as she can. It's slightly easier than before, at least. 

"Anything," Annand whispers, afraid to speak too loudly for fear of shattering the moment.

Rahna reaches towards Annand's face and cups her cheeks with her hands. Annand's heart pounds so strongly that she suspects that Rahna can feel her pulse. She doesn't pull away.

"Don't ever go and die again. I can't bear to lose you twice."

"If it's my life or yours, I will always choose you," Annand says stubbornly. Rahna frowns, and Annand knows that she's about to argue with her, tell Annand that she isn't worth that much. Something flares within Annand, spurring her forward before Rahna can speak.

"My heart is yours. I could not bear to live in a world without you, who I love so dearly, knowing that I could have prevented it." Annand's pulse pounds between her ears, and she briefly feels dizzy. She had said it. After all these years, she had finally confessed. 

Rahna gives her a soft smile tinged with sadness.

"I know. I know, because that is exactly how I feel about you, my dear." 

Annand heart catches in her throat. This can't be real. She must still be lying fallen in a snowbank outside Silessia, hallucinating as she dies. Yet this all feels so vivid, so real, and Annand has never felt more awake. She can't tell which one of them leans in first, but she supposes that it hardly matters. Nothing else matters, only Rahna's lips on hers and Rahna's hands against her cheeks. 

There's a knock on the door, and Annand opens her eyes in surprise, but she doesn't have time to move before the door flies open, and 

"Is Annand--" It's Lewyn and Erinys. Annand freezes. Of all the people to interrupt them, of course it had to be her younger sister and the boy who may as well have been her younger brother. Who is also the son of the woman she had just been kissing. Annand briefly wishes that the pain from her injuries would belatedly catch up to her and force her to lose consciousness. Anything to escape this moment. 

Rahna gracefully pulls away from her, like nothing out of the ordinary had happened, and turns towards the visitors. Lewyn's eyebrows are raised, though his face is otherwise impassive. Erinys is more expressive, her mouth dropped open in shock.

"I'll give you three some privacy," Rahna says before standing, as though she were the interrupting party. "I must speak with Lord Sigurd before he departs for Zaxon." She turns back towards Annand as she reaches the door, meeting her eyes. "I'll be back later, Annand. Be sure and rest until then." She closes the door quietly behind her, leaving Annand to avoid direct eye contact with Lewyn and Erinys. 

"So--" Lewyn starts to say, but Annand interrupts him before he can ask any awkward questions.

"Thank you for saving my life. I owe you both a great deal." Annand steels herself, and looks directly towards Lewyn and Erinys. 

"Well, it wasn't like we were just going to leave you there," Lewyn says with a wry smile. Erin rolls her eyes, but ignores him.

"I'm just glad that you were able to recover. I was worried that I was too late," she says.

"Okay, I have to ask," Lewyn interjects. "I'm glad you're alive and all. But are you and my mother really..." he trails off, and makes an odd gesture with his hands, interlacing the fingers from each hand in a 'V' shape with each other. It takes Annand a moment to realize what he's alluding to, and heat rushes to her cheeks when she understands.

"Lewyn!" Erin shrieks, apparently realizing what he means at the same time Annand does. "That's your mother you're talking about! And my sister! You can't just-- of course you'd say something like that!"

"Yeah, I know," Lewyn says, turning and looking at Erinys with a wide grin on his face. His body is still turned towards Annand, but he only has eyes for Erin. Annand can't help but smile at the two of them as they continue to bicker playfully. Or at least, playfully for Lewyn. Erin does seem genuinely peeved, though that's probably why Lewyn is having so much fun.

Annand laughs. It feels nice to laugh again, after everything that had happened. It feels so nice to just be alive and warm and talking with two of the people she cares for the most in the world.

"Don't encourage him, Ann!" Erin pouts. 

"I can't blame him for asking," Annand protests. "Queen Rahna is his mother, after all."

"So... you two  _ are _ together?" Erinys asks, apparently curious despite rebuking Lewyn just moments ago. "Exactly how long has  _ that _ been happening?"

"Since just now," Annand admits, feeling blood rush to her cheeks again. She glances away from the both of them, ducking her head a little.

"Oh! Then I'm sorry that we interrupted."

"It's fine," Annand says, shaking her head. "You've kept Lord Sigurd waiting long enough. He still hasn't captured Zaxon castle yet, has he? I'm glad to see you two before you leave to go fight again, but he will need you both in the upcoming siege." 

"There's no need to worry," Lewyn says with a wave of his hand. "I'm sure they'll have Daccar's army under control with or without us." 

"And your uncle himself?" Annand chides. Lewyn's face scrunches. "You shouldn't take Baron Daccar and his millitary force lightly. I know that there are a few other mages in your army, but you're the best, Lewyn, and he's a force to be reckoned with."

"Yeah, I know," Lewyn mumbles, breaking eye contact for a moment and looking away. Annand sighs.

"I just want to see you come home alive, is all," she says.

"That's pretty funny to hear coming from you, after Erin pulled you half-dead out of the snow," Lewyn says with a jab of his finger to her cheek. "More than half dead, actually. Three quarters? Seven eighths?" Annand frowns at him. 

"Please don't poke me like that, my lord." 

"Sorry, sorry," Lewyn says in a half-joking tone, pulling his hands away from her face and leaning back. "But mother gave me the Forseti tome. Daccar won't be any trouble."

"Forseti? She finally gave it to you?" Annand smiles. "I'm glad."

"Yeah," he says. "Mother wouldn't let me stay to protect her. So you will, right?" Lewyn pleads, looking at Annand anxiously.

"Of course, my lord." 

"And you know that you can't protect her if you go and die again, right?" Erinys interjects with a stern look. Annand winces. She should be the one scolding her younger sister to stay safe and not be reckless with her life, not the other way around. 

"I will always prioritize her life over my own," Annand says reluctantly, knowing that that isn't exactly what either of them want to hear. "But Her Majesty has impressed upon me the importance that she places on my life, and I won't let her down again." Erin's face softens. 

"Don't be too hard on yourself," she says, leaning in for a hug. Annand embraces her tightly, until Erin pulls back. "And don't worry about us. Come on, Lewyn. We should go now" Lewyn nods, and stands from the chair next to Annand's bed. 

"See you later," he says to her with a wave as he leaves the room with Erinys. Annand understands. Lewyn had never been one for proper farewells. She tells herself that it's fine, despite the sinking feeling in her heart. She'll see them both again. Yet she still feels a strange sense of foreboding as she watches them leave. 

"I pray that Naga watches over you both," Annand says softly to herself, alone in a room that suddenly feels much more cold now that she is its only occupant.

**Author's Note:**

> (and then they both live through the timeskip because i said so, and live long happy lives. unless you really still want the whole tragedy thing to happen, i guess)


End file.
